This invention relates to boots for protecting objects from adverse environmental influences. Some examples are boots for: protecting drive mechanisms for antennas; electrical devices such as convertors, motors and terminals; air deflectors on trucks; and, operating, manipulative, power and control components of robotics. Such boots are useful for both indoor and outdoor applications.
Rubber boots for the protection of objects from the environment are known. It is also known to prepare elastomeric boots having bellows that fit over objects or mechanical joints that bend or extend and contract. The bellows permits the motion without destruction of the boot.
When boots are used over objects kept indoors or outdoors under varying temperature conditions there is a tendency for condensation to form inside them which may be damaging to the protected parts. In addition, when such boots are extended or compressed by movement of the objects in them, the boots may be bulged or collapsed if air cannot be exchanged rapidly enough with the atmosphere.
During compression, bellows type boots may kink and the resulting bunching can interfere with the desired mechanical movement of the object within the boot. All the foregoing problems have been observed in boots used to protect the drive mechanisms that are used to aim reflector antennas used to receive satellite signals and other movable objects such as air deflectors for trucks.
Similar problems of moisture collection have also been found to occur with nonexpandable boots, such as can be used to cover electrical devices like convertors, motors and terminals.
There has been a traditional problem in providing an appropriate opening in the boot. If the boot is to fit tightly against the projecting element, the opening must be relatively small. But a small opening makes installation of the boot over a relatively large article difficult, risking tearing if the boot has to be stretched too much.
Numerous solutions to the problem of making a protective boot with an opening have been suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 1,278,271 to Wilkins shows a boot for a gear shift lever having a metal base, a fabric bag extending from the base and ending in a drawstring arrangement for closing the bag. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,093,672 to Golden and 3,285,093 to Sellmeyer disclose flexible guards that depend on the resiliency of the materials to seal the guards to gear shift levers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,849 to Mossner shows a brake pedal boot that includes a lengthwise velcro closure. This boot may be installed from the side, the closure joined, and the top clamped to the lever on the pedal avoiding the necessity of passing the pedal through an opening in the bag.